They would ask me what actors I saw in the roles. I would tell them, and they’d say “Oh that’s interesting.” And that would be the end of it.
--Elmore Leonard, in 2000, on the extent of his input for Hollywood's adaptation of his novels

Believe it or not, I sold the movie rights to The Limit: Life and Death on the 1961 Grand Prix Circuit before writing its first sentence. It was pure luck.. Another book about mid-century racing was soon to be published with its own movie deal. My agent managed to sell the rights to The Limit up front so the rival project wouldn’t get too far ahead. Two books about racing were, in effect, waging their own race.

Columbia Pictures bought the rights to The Limit with a commitment from Tobey Maguire who would play Phil Hill, the lowly Santa Monica mechanic who eventually won the Formula One World Championship. Word reached me in New York that Maguire’s resemblance to Hill impressed the studio folks. Uncanny, they said. I don’t see it, but whatever. Columbia recently chose to let their option lapse, so all bets are off. For me, it’s been an education in the mysterious ways of Hollywood.

In December Tobey Maguire will appear in The Great Gatsby with Leo DiCaprio. Naturally, my greatest wish would be for them to reunite in The Limit with DiCaprio playing the ebullient but doomed German Count Wolfgang von Trips.

“Compared to a novel, a film is like an economy pizza where there are no olives, no ham, no anchovies, no mushrooms, and all you’ve got is the dough.”
--Louis de Bernières, author of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin